Former US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said in an interview with CBS’s “Face the Nation” that Russian President Vladimir Putin is unlikely to accept any peace deal in Ukraine unless he achieves his long-standing goal of rebuilding the Russian empire.

Gates believes Putin sees Ukraine as essential to that objective, according to CBS.

“My own view, having dealt with him and having spent most of my life working on Russia and the Soviet Union, is Putin feels that he has a destiny to recreate the Russian Empire,” Gates said. “And as my old mentor, Zbigniew Brzezinski once said, without Ukraine, there can be no Russian Empire.”

No sign of compromise from Moscow

Gates said Putin continues to push for a complete occupation of the four eastern oblasts – Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson, permanent recognition of Russian control over Crimea, a pro-Russian government in Kyiv, and a stripped-down Ukrainian military “that looks a lot like an enhanced police force.” Putin also wants guarantees of no NATO membership for Ukraine.

“He’s going to insist on occupying all four of the eastern provinces of the Donbas, perpetual recognition of Russian ownership of Crimea, a pro-Russian government in Kyiv and a Ukrainian military that looks a lot like an enhanced police force,” Gates stated. “And no membership in NATO and probably no membership in the EU.”

No deterrence despite massive Russian losses

According to Gates, the immense cost of the war — including around 900,000 Russian troops killed or wounded and significant economic losses — has not deterred Putin.

“It hasn’t deterred him in the slightest,” Gates told CBS.

US President Trump wrote in a 26 April social media post that “maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war” in reference to Putin. Gates said he believes Trump is sensing that Putin is stalling for time.

“I think the president is — based on what I read — is getting the sense that, as he put it, that Putin is ‘tapping’ him along and … Putin hasn’t given up on any of his original goals in Ukraine,” Gates said, referring to Trump’s post.

The ongoing Russo-Ukrainian war dates back to 2014, when Russian forces seized Crimea following the ousting of pro-Russian Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych after the Euromaidan revolution. Gates believes Putin wants to reverse the outcome of that uprising and return Ukraine to Moscow’s orbit.

“He wants Ukraine, basically, to be a client state of Russia,” Gates said. “And I don’t see what it would take to get him to walk away from any of those goals in the foreseeable future.”